Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State, his party, the All Progressives Congress, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, on Wednesday urged the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to overturn the March 22, 2019 judgment of the state Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which nullified the governor’s victory at the September 2018 poll.
But the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, who were declared the winner of the election by the tribunal, urged the Court of Appeal to affirm the tribunal’s judgment. On Wednesday, a five-man panel led by Justice Jummai Sankey, heard all the three appeals and a cross-appeal filed in relation to the disputed election and reserved its judgments.
The date of the judgments is to be communicated to the parties via hearing notices that will be served on their lawyers whenever the judgments are ready. With Justice Sankey presiding, other members of the appeal panel which heard all the four appeals on Wednesday were Justices Abubakar Yahaya, George Mbaba, Isaiah Akeju and Bitrus Sanga.
Both Oyetola and Adeleke were present at the Wednesday’s proceedings which lasted over five hours. INEC had declared Oyetola and the APC the winner of the Osun State governorship election on the basis of the cumulative results of the September 22, 2018 main election and the September 27, 2018 supplementary poll.
Dissatisfied with the result declared by INEC, the PDP and Adeleke had filed their petition before the three-man Osun State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, contending that they were the true winner of the election as they had already won after the September 22, 2018 poll and that there was no need for the September 27, 2018 supplementary election.
The tribunal, in its March 22, 2019 split judgment of two-to-one, nullified Oyetola’s victory and declared Adeleke and the PDP the winner of the election. The tribunal’s chairman, Justice Ibrahim Sirajo, in his minority judgment, dissented from the majority judgment credited to Justices Peter Obiorah and Adegboye Gbolagunte. The trio of Oyetola, the APC and INEC had filed separate appeals challenging the majority judgment.
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